Albert Reichmann: Property tycoon behind Canary Wharf and the World Financial Center dies aged 93
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The modest man responsible for transforming the former wasteland of London’s Docklands into Canary Wharf has died at the age of 93.
Albert Reichmann, along with his brother Paul, were the masterminds behind Olympia & York, the world’s most successful commercial property developer.
The family fled from the Nazis not once but twice, from Vienna and then Paris, before moving to Canada, where they honed their craft as enterprising businessmen.
Together they helped transform the skylines of some of the world’s most exciting cities, including London, New York and Toronto.
Margaret Thatcher personally asked the Reichmann brothers if they could set their sights on turning the abandoned Isle of Dogs into, in Albert’s own words, “an address”.
Chairman of Olympia & York Developments from his family Albert Reichmann with Fergie
Albert Reichmann (pictured), along with his brother Paul, were the masterminds behind the world’s most successful commercial property developer, Olympia & York.
Construction work adding the last block of One Canada Square’s distinctive pyramidal pinnacle in 1991
Tasked with breathing new life into the old port of London, in 1987 the Tory prime minister asked the duo to turn the land into a “city centre” to compete with that of the Square Mile.
Today, the Canary Wharf cluster of skyscrapers is instantly recognizable and home to some of the world’s largest banks including Citigroup, Barclays, Credit Suisse and HSBC.
After raising £3bn for the development, within a year the foundations for the 50-storey One Canada Square skyscraper were laid, arguably the centerpiece of Canary Wharf but certainly its most iconic.
At their peak, the Reichmanns were estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $13 billion in 1991 and touted as the fourth-richest family in the world.
But that same year, when One Canada Square was completed, the country was in a recession and development began to decline.
Only twelve of the Olympia & York buildings were completed and most of them were only half complete.
Albert Reichmann (right) at an HSBC event
Margaret Thatcher is shown a model of the proposed development of Canary Wharf by Paul Reichmann, Albert’s brother and business partner.
The project stretched Reichmann’s finances to the breaking point and in 1992 the company declared bankruptcy.
Despite accumulating great wealth, Albert had humble beginnings.
His family originated from Hungary, but their Jewish roots led them to leave for Austria just a year before Albert was born due to growing anti-Semitic sentiment.
It was in Vienna that Albert was born in January 1929, the fourth of five children born to Orthodox Jewish parents Samuel and Renée (née Gestetner).
His father made a living freezing eggs, a product in great demand in winter, and selling them throughout Europe.
Albert and his siblings grew up in a close-knit family home and read the Talmud, the Hebrew scriptures, together every day.
After the demolition of the old Canary Wharf, cranes can be seen in the Docklands in their redevelopment process.
Albert Reichmann pictured with Canadian comedian Don Harron
But as the family went about their business, political rumors began spilling over into everyday life in Austria.
On March 12, German troops entered Austria and annexed the country to the Third Reich.
With this, the Reichmanns fled to Paris, where they settled until 1940, where once again news of advancing Nazi soldiers saw them move to Spain and finally to Tangier in Morocco.
As a child, Albert spent countless hours helping his mother pack chocolate into parcels to send as bribes to get Jews out of Europe.
Albert’s father, Samuel, was into currency trading and after the war ended in 1945, he worked alongside him.
At the time, Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square was called “an eyesore”. In the picture: Construction work on the building.
But again antisemitism caused the family to leave Morocco with Albert and his two brothers, Paul and Ralph, moving to Toronto, Canada in 1959.
In the mid-1950s, Albert’s older brothers Edward and Louis demonstrated their business acumen by establishing Olympia Floor & Wall Tiles in Montreal, and Paul and Ralph followed suit by establishing a branch upon their arrival in Toronto.
He soon realized that building his own warehouse space would cost about half the price, with his father’s help, and he founded York Industrial Developments, which would go on to build 200 warehouses.
In 1964, the two companies merged to become Olympia & York, first developing property schemes in Canada, but by the 1980s they had expanded across North America, including developing the World Financial Center in New York, which was built on reclaimed land along the Hudson River. .
The brothers set out to buy up vacant lots in run-down parts of cities and turn them into visionary business districts, turning them into their business empire.
In his later years, Albert turned away from commercial property development and focused on philanthropy, launching a plan to help Jews from the Soviet Union immigrate to Israel.
His son Philip, who survives him, followed in his footsteps and worked on a property before the family business was sold in 2005. Albert’s wife, Egoza, died in April.
Albert Reichmann, real estate developer, was born in January 1929. He died on December 17, 2022, at the age of 93